This season, the Texans face two read option teams in the 49ers and Seahawks. In 2012, they faced no read option teams.

In 2011, the Texans lost to the read option Panthers. By Football Outsiders measures, the Texans had by far the worst performance of that season against Carolina. Far below average. That was one of the games where Wade Phillips wasn’t available to call the defensive plays because he was out due to his surgery.

How to defeat the read option.

I suggest reading the following recent articles on the read option and the best way to stop it:

When I asked Antonio Smith about defending the read option, he gave the in-Wade-we-trust answer:

“I think every year one team gets a quarterback that they start adopting that to their system. It’s a dangerous weapon. I think that Wade (Philips) is going to have us ready. I think that anything any team can throw at us, Wade has the antidote for it. If we just trust in our leader, then we will be alright. The young guys to the oldest guys. It’s worse for the older guys cause we have gone years and years without ever even playing an option team. The guys in college have been playing it for about three years before they came here. If we just rely on what Wade gives us in the defense, I don’t think an option, or west coast offense, or running offense, or anything can stop us.”

I hadn’t thought that it may be harder for older players to get used to it versus younger players.

J.J. Watt added these thoughts:

“It’s definitely a challenge. Obviously, we have a few teams on our schedule this year with those types of offenses. The first thing you have to do is contain the quarterback and our scout team always gives us a great look. You’ve got a guy like (QB) Case Keenum back there. You’ve got (QB) T.J. (Yates) giving us looks. Those guys do a great job of giving us a look, but, as players, that’s our job. We need to know what we need to do. Coaches will instill the plays and we just need to execute. We need to make sure we’re very sound in our assignments and we’ll take care of it.”

Interestingly, in the 2013 schedule, the 49ers game comes right after the Seahawks game. So prepare to hear more about the read option by the end of September into the beginning of October.